Kai vs. Z Dub

[thaman91]

The Blu Rays do not have Faulconer. I drove all over town looking for something that had it. They aren't easy to find or I would have bought some.

No they do. Starting at episode 68, the Season Blu-ray sets with the American Broadcast track selected do have the Faulconer music. Maybe you tried an earlier episode (which would have Nathan Johnson music).

[Jinzoningen MULE]

The Blu Rays do not have Faulconer.

I own the Blu-rays, they do have the Faulconer score. Not sure what makes you think otherwise

[Bajosexto]

The orange bricks aren't in stores anymore. I used to be able to find them. No longer.

The Blu Rays do not have Faulconer. I drove all over town looking for something that had it. They aren't easy to find or I would have bought some.

The current Blu-rays do have the Faulconor score. But they play the Japanese score by default. You have to manually change the audio track to "English US broadcasts version" or something like that. I can't remember exactly what it says.

[cheddarsword]

There are no versions in stores with the Faulconer score anymore...

That's not true. The Orange Bricks and Season Blu-rays both have the American replacement score, and you can find them in stores all over the place.

Actually, the first season was in my local Wal-Mart about 2 months ago. Not sure if it's still there. It was the Blu-Ray version. They've also had the complete GT series for $25 for a while now.

As for which is better, I personally like Faulconer versions of Cell's theme, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber theme (2nd half anyway) and Super/Kid Buu's themes. Other than that, I prefer Kai due to less filler and more accuracy.

Though I could see how people would prefer to watch with the filler as some of it's entertaining. But with what I'd like to do, I don't need inaccuracies filling my head.

For me: Kai.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Actually, the first season was in my local Wal-Mart about 2 months ago. Not sure if it's still there. It was the Blu-Ray version. They've also had the complete GT series for $25 for a while now.

Most Walmarts are carrying those right now. They've been in the video section of every store I've seen, anyway.

[cheddarsword]

Actually, the first season was in my local Wal-Mart about 2 months ago. Not sure if it's still there. It was the Blu-Ray version. They've also had the complete GT series for $25 for a while now.

Most Walmarts are carrying those right now. They've been in the video section of every store I've seen, anyway.

Makes sense. The problem is their lack of consistency. The next thing they might get in could be the end of the Cell saga, completely skipping Namek and the Androids!

Trust me on this. I speak from experience.

They may have good prices for their anime but as a go to location, they're random.

[SaintEvolution]

I mean, how can anyone say that Funimation Z is better? Nostalgia is the only answer.

Continue to undermine others opinions and do whatever you can to reassure yourself you are 'correct' here. While you do that, I'll keep watching the dub I think is the better variant and not make excuses for why someone might like a different variant more than myself.

Sorry, but correct or disagree with another person is not "undermine" it.


Z's interpretation is clearly more forced and artificial than Kai's. You can like Z's dub more, ok, your taste. But the dub of Kai is clearly and truly better.

[Valerius Dover]

Last time I was in the US back in July, I saw all 9 Orange Brick Seasons actually sold together at a video store in a mall, among many other things. They even had DB and DBGT sets in the store as well. I think it depends on the store, but they can definitely be found out there.

And yes, the Blu-Ray and Season Sets have the exact same audio tracks, namely English with Japanese music as the default, along with the other two tracks being English with US music (Specifically that would mean Johnson up until late Season 2 and Faulconer for the rest), and of course the actual original Japanese audio.

Of course, it is still true that the US score does have less exposure since casual fans are probably not even going to enter the settings menu and select the option, let alone consistently. But hey, at least it's on there.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I mean, how can anyone say that Funimation Z is better? Nostalgia is the only answer.

Continue to undermine others opinions and do whatever you can to reassure yourself you are 'correct' here. While you do that, I'll keep watching the dub I think is the better variant and not make excuses for why someone might like a different variant more than myself.

Sorry, but correct or disagree with another person is not "undermine" it.


Z's interpretation is clearly more forced and artificial than Kai's. You can like Z's dub more, ok, your taste. But the dub of Kai is clearly and truly better.

Yeah in terms of a dub the adaptation the voice acting etc the Kai dub is objectively better. But like you said that doesn't mean one can't prefer the old Z dub they can but I think it's about knowing and accepting. 6 months after joing this site I finally began to understand why Kai was better and checked it out and even made a topic admitting I was wrong about it, but I still watched and enjoyed the old dub. (But nowadays I can't enjoy it as much)

[Bansho64]

Continue to undermine others opinions and do whatever you can to reassure yourself you are 'correct' here. While you do that, I'll keep watching the dub I think is the better variant and not make excuses for why someone might like a different variant more than myself.

I mean, does anyone really need to reassure themselves that it's the better overall dub though? It's like saying that someone has to reassure themselves that Logan is better acted than The Room.

[Kokonoe]

As long as people say "nostalgia is the only answer" for someone enjoying the pre Kai dub, it will always be undermining why someone may prefer it and think it's better than Kai's dub.

It's no different than saying someone is "nostalgic" for thinking Mario 3 is better than Mario Galaxy. Also, people tend to pick and choose the worst moments of the original dub for comparisons, like I don't see anyone comparing the Super Saiyan 3 moment or anything.

If you think the original dub is shit, that's fine, that's your view. But stop saying shit like the only reason someone would think the original dub is better is "nostalgia". It's disrespectful.

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

One thing I always do, (while I personally thought Kai was kind of pointless at least for us older fans, it did bring in a newer generation of fans) is that I recommend Kai instead of Z. Since it's easier to recommend a 170 episode series instead of a 291 series. Also since the Kai dub isn't as cheesy helps as well.

[Bansho64]

As long as people say "nostalgia is the only answer" for someone enjoying the pre Kai dub, it will always be undermining why someone may prefer it and think it's better than Kai's dub.

I can't lie, I do see your point here. I'm sure there's other reasons besides nostalgia, but I do think nostalgia does tend to be in the list of the reasons why I see a lot of fans preferring it

Also, people tend to pick and choose the worst moments of the original dub for comparisons, like I don't see anyone comparing the Super Saiyan 3 moment or anything.

I don't think you're looking around enough. There's plenty of comparisons that have been made her between the "big" moments in both the original and dubbed versions.

If you think the original dub is shit, that's fine, that's your view. But stop saying shit like the only reason someone would think the original dub is better is "nostalgia". It's disrespectful.

It's understandable when you meet the large majority of fans who like it. Most of em are usually on the older side and throw around phrases like "This is how it should be because that's how I first saw it".

[ABED]

As long as people say "nostalgia is the only answer" for someone enjoying the pre Kai dub, it will always be undermining why someone may prefer it and think it's better than Kai's dub.

It's no different than saying someone is "nostalgic" for thinking Mario 3 is better than Mario Galaxy. Also, people tend to pick and choose the worst moments of the original dub for comparisons, like I don't see anyone comparing the Super Saiyan 3 moment or anything.

If you think the original dub is shit, that's fine, that's your view. But stop saying shit like the only reason someone would think the original dub is better is "nostalgia". It's disrespectful.

Mario 3 isn't of worse quality than Mario Galaxy. It's a very different game, whereas DBZ and DBZ Kai are very similar products, the big difference being execution. It's not an apples and oranges comparison. The Z dub did get better over time, but there are a thousand examples people can point to in order to show why it's a shoddy product. The reason why it's a shoddy product is because there are a thousand examples of cheesy lines, bad characterization, the inexperience of the actors showing through, bad casting, etc. Lastly, there are a few that will say nostalgia is the only reason people prefer Z, that's hardly the whole argument.

[Kokonoe]

As long as people say "nostalgia is the only answer" for someone enjoying the pre Kai dub, it will always be undermining why someone may prefer it and think it's better than Kai's dub.

I can't lie, I do see your point here. I'm sure there's other reasons besides nostalgia, but I do think nostalgia does tend to be in the list of the reasons why I see a lot of fans preferring it

Also, people tend to pick and choose the worst moments of the original dub for comparisons, like I don't see anyone comparing the Super Saiyan 3 moment or anything.

I don't think you're looking around enough. There's plenty of comparisons that have been made her between the "big" moments in both the original and dubbed versions.

If you think the original dub is shit, that's fine, that's your view. But stop saying shit like the only reason someone would think the original dub is better is "nostalgia". It's disrespectful.

It's understandable when you meet the large majority of fans who like it. Most of em are usually on the older side and throw around phrases like "This is how it should be because that's how I first saw it".

Yeah, I mean, there are actually plenty of reasons to enjoy it. I've typed out some pretty lengthy responses as to why I prefer the original overall over Kai's dub on this site, and none of it is due to nostalgia. As far as dubs go, the orange bricks are my favorite in terms of audio (voice/music). The remastered dub for the Frieza saga is actually pretty dang good IMO.

I'm not saying either variant is without criticism, It's just from what I've noticed, people tend to not compare the original's strengths vs Kai's strengths. It's always comparing the worst to the strength of Kai.

And I think that's why we shouldn't let people who have annoyed us with flawed arguments become the basis for discussing things here. Like, I'm definitely not one of those people who just like something cause it's the most original, or my first experience with something. I only prefer something when I weigh all the options and consider which one overall is to my preference. It's hard finding reasonable people on the internet, but they do exist.

[Scsigs]

...like I don't see anyone comparing the Super Saiyan 3 moment or anything.

If you think the original dub is shit, that's fine, that's your view. But stop saying shit like the only reason someone would think the original dub is better is "nostalgia". It's disrespectful.

Because the Kai dub of that scene hasn't been shown yet. Even in Budokai 3, I think the delivery of that dialogue was better handled, so I have no doubt Schemmel topped himself in the Kai dub. We'll see when Part 2 comes out next month. In similar scenes, like when Goku goes Super Saiyan, I don't think there's any doubt that the Kai version is superior, similar with the Kaioken scene.

You know there ARE some people who like the Z dub better because of nostalgia, right? I just relayed a story of someone who, pretty much, believes the Z dub is superior on all accounts because of his nostalgia from seeing it as a kid. Some people can enjoy it even though it's cheesy, poorly acted in places, & has the scripting of Yugioh's dub most of the time. I won't knock someone's enjoyment of it, but to get the most out of it, you would've needed to be a kid the first time you watched it, or at least very young. The Kai dub's a dub you can actually take seriously. The show by itself is entertaining, but the only way I can see most people who haven't seen it before is if they laugh at all the stupid jokes & mistranslations that don't shit on the original lines, or they watch DBZ Abridged, since that's intentionally supposed to be funny & works most of the time. Kinda reminds me of the TFS version of the Cell Games reenactment, as that was intentionally stupid & funny & worked because the staff were poking fun at the old dub & FUNi's old dubbing practices at the time, rather than it being played straight.
I'm pretty sure Sabat himself has stated something along the lines of DBZ Kai being good for taking the series seriously if you're a newcomer, or older than 10, & the DBZ dub is good for those with nostalgia for it.

[Kokonoe]

...like I don't see anyone comparing the Super Saiyan 3 moment or anything.

If you think the original dub is shit, that's fine, that's your view. But stop saying shit like the only reason someone would think the original dub is better is "nostalgia". It's disrespectful.

Because the Kai dub of that scene hasn't been shown yet. Even in Budokai 3, I think the delivery of that dialogue was better handled, so I have no doubt Schemmel topped himself in the Kai dub. We'll see when Part 2 comes out next month. In similar scenes, like when Goku goes Super Saiyan, I don't think there's any doubt that the Kai version is superior, similar with the Kaioken scene.

You know there ARE some people who like the Z dub better because of nostalgia, right? I just relayed a story of someone who, pretty much, believes the Z dub is superior on all accounts because of his nostalgia from seeing it as a kid. Some people can enjoy it even though it's cheesy, poorly acted in places, & has the scripting of Yugioh's dub most of the time. I won't knock someone's enjoyment of it, but to get the most out of it, you would've needed to be a kid the first time you watched it, or at least very young. The Kai dub's a dub you can actually take seriously. The show by itself is entertaining, but the only way I can see most people who haven't seen it before is if they laugh at all the stupid jokes & mistranslations that don't shit on the original lines, or they watch DBZ Abridged, since that's intentionally supposed to be funny & works most of the time. Kinda reminds me of the TFS version of the Cell Games reenactment, as that was intentionally stupid & funny & worked because the staff were poking fun at the old dub & FUNi's old dubbing practices at the time, rather than it being played straight.
I'm pretty sure Sabat himself has stated something along the lines of DBZ Kai being good for taking the series seriously if you're a newcomer, or older than 10, & the DBZ dub is good for those with nostalgia for it.

Once again, we shouldn't let random people that have annoyed us become the basis for discussing this series. If we go on that end, I could very well mention all of the times people don't even give a dub a chance because they think the only thing that can be done right is Japanese. I could also go on about how people could be "nostalgia" (bleck hate that term) for enjoying even the Japanese variant cause that is what they first grew up with. It would be far wiser to just respect that none of our opinions are factually correct and allow others to have their views without stipulations such as "nostalgia" or "they first grew up with".

Just because you deem something is quality doesn't mean it factually is quality, it all comes down to subjective opinions in the end. The way something sounds, the way something is executed, the color of something, the processing of something. I mean, you have people that prefer JPN Kai over the original JPN Z for reasons such as voices and music. You can also have reasons for said opinions, just as anyone who prefers the original ENG dub can have their reasons, but let's stop with the whole implying everyone is biased for thinking something is better than you or others opinions on this subject, or there being some kind of biased reason for them to think this way. It's doing no one any favors and all it leads to is petty squabbles. If someone thinks ENG Kai dub is the best, that's okay, if someone thinks JPN's dub is the best, that's okay, if someone thinks Portuguese dub is the best, that's okay.

Everyone is equal is here, we just share very different views.

[jjgp1112]

Yeah, nostalgia's definitely a huge factor.

Like, somebody brought up either in this or another thread how there's so many anime fans out there who talk about how they only watch the japanese version of most anime, and declare most dubs are shit & desecrate the original, but make an exception for Dragon Ball Z. Why do you think that is?

Shows like Naruto, One Piece, etc. have pretty accurate dubs, while DBZ was rife with inaccuracies, tone shifting, and even different soundtracks, and yet they consider that the Holy grail of dubbing. Surely such a massive inconsistency in reasoning has to be influenced by a bias, like fond memories from growing up on it (or seeing the dub before the Japanese version, whereas with modern anime it's the other way around), right? On one end, they tout their poorly-conceived, ignorant elitism, but then prop up a dub that is in complete opposition of what they value.

[ABED]

I'm not saying either variant is without criticism, It's just from what I've noticed, people tend to not compare the original's strengths vs Kai's strengths. It's always comparing the worst to the strength of Kai.

Because even at its worst, Kai is overall superior to Z. There is far more questionable dialog and casting choices in Z than there are in Kai. I believe you are overlooking Z's massive flaws and claiming the examples we use aren't indicative of the product as a whole while simultaneously pointing to a couple standout moments of the dub and implying that's what the dub was like. Beyond Super Saiyan 3, I can't think of too many moments of the Z dub that were good. The orange bricks were moderately better in certain ways, but it had another issue with the mishmash of recordings from different years. 1999 Goku is speaking to 2007 Gohan and Vegeta. It sticks out like a sore thumb.

I only prefer something when I weigh all the options and consider which one overall is to my preference. It's hard finding reasonable people on the internet, but they do exist.

A lot of people say that, but nostalgia affects everyone and that doesn't make someone less reasonable, especially if they acknowledge it.

(bleck hate that term)

Why do you hate the term nostalgia? It's a perfectly good emotion.

If someone thinks ENG Kai dub is the best, that's okay

People can like whatever they want and those reasons don't have to include the quality of the product.

[Bansho64]

I'm not saying either variant is without criticism, It's just from what I've noticed, people tend to not compare the original's strengths vs Kai's strengths. It's always comparing the worst to the strength of Kai.

Kai's strengths are all around though. Literally every single thing there is well acted. I still think King Kai's meh, but that's voice wise. The in-house cast is experienced and almost every line is delivered awesomely.

Z's scenes are badly acted in nearly all of the pre-Buu saga content. And that's well over 120 episodes!